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News briefs 8.14.02

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Happiness
was a warm gun

The
arms race is not a modern phenomenon. Long before the Cold War, cave dwellers
stockpiled rocks to use as weapons. And for one brief moment between the rocks
and the missiles, Rochester made a contribution to the history of weaponry.

In 1861, a dentist named Josephus
Requa invented the first rapid-fire machine gun. The Civil War had just started
and he wanted to boost the Union's advantage. The Requa Battery, as it was
called, was built from 25 .52-caliber rifle barrels that fired simultaneously.
A crew of three men could shoot an astonishing 175 rounds in one minute.

The whole town turned out 140 years
ago this month to watch the Requa Battery assault a wooden barrel target in the
Genesee River. It filled the air with gunsmoke and riddled the barrel with
holes. The crowd went wild. The Rochester
Union & Advertiser called the gun a "complete battery of terrible
power."

Dr. Requa traveled to Washington,
DC, to meet with President Lincoln. Always on the lookout for new technology to
end the war, Lincoln ordered dozens of Requa Batteries. Thirty helped crush the
Confederates in the same battle at Charleston, South Carolina, later made
famous by the movie Glory.

You can hear stories like this one
at Mt. Hope Cemetery, where Requa and other characters are buried. A tour
that's also a play, "Rochester's Visionaries and Inventors" is a 90-minute
time-travel odyssey. Visitors will walk through the lush historic grounds and
meet interesting (dead) Rochesterians from all eras like Lewis H. Morgan (the
father of American anthropology), Seth Green (the guy who invented the modern
fishery), and poet Adelaide Crapsey. No tour of Mt. Hope would be complete
without stops at the Anthony and Douglass family graves, so expect to see Susan
B. and Fred while you're there, too.

Presented
by the RMSC Players in conjunction with the Friends of Mt. Hope Cemetery at 10
and 11:30 a.m. on the following Saturdays: August 17, September 21, and October
12. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for children. Call 271-4552 x342 for
reservations.

---
Jennifer Loviglio

Public
Library, Inc.

As
Monroe County's Central Library
slashes staff, hours, and services in an attempt to cope with a loss of county
and state funding that could reach $2 million next year, some observers have
suggested the institution simply start charging fees for currently free
services.

"People say, 'Why don't you just
charge for a library card?'" says Monroe County Library System director Richard
Panz. In fact, library officials are considering doing just that: Charging
people who reside outside Monroe County, and who do not own property within
county limits, as much as $30 for a library card. Board members of the
Rochester Public Library and the Monroe County Library System will also
consider imposing a fee for placing holds on library materials --- perhaps 50
cents per item --- when they meet in the coming weeks.

Panz chafes under the assumption he
can start managing our public libraries like they were Barnes & Nobles. "I
don't control all the libraries," he says. "The MCLS board does not, either. To
charge a fee, we have to have the collective consensus" of branch librarians
countywide, he says. "And that's not easy to get."

It seems some stodgy librarians are
still enamored with the quaint idea that everyone should have equal access to
the knowledge available at public libraries, regardless of their ability to pay
for it. Fees for holds and other services will be on the table when the
system's various boards meet this month.

Meanwhile, it looks as though the
Central Library will be able to stay open the minimum 55 hours per week
necessary for it to keep its state charter. Panz expects private funding will
again allow the Rundel and Bausch & Lomb Public Library Buildings to open
their doors on Sundays. Should the library have had to drop below 55 hours, it
could have lost roughly $300,000 in state aid. The county cut has already
jeopardized $500,000 in state funds, money that's contingent on a level of
local financial support the proposed county budget would not provide.

And though the final numbers aren't
in yet, Panz is a bit pessimistic about how much money the library system will
take in from overdue book fines. Despite a public plea for scholarly scofflaws
to pay up, Panz says, "I'd be happy if we got 10 percent" of the $300,000 in
outstanding fines. That's less than outstanding news for readers.

Retreat
from service

After
being head of Monroe County social services for nearly a decade, director Richard Schauseil has announced he'll
retire this fall. Far be it from us to begrudge him a comfy retirement. But we
see the ironies.

Schauseil, whose job it's been to
enact various aspects of "welfare reform," recently told the Democrat and Chronicle's Jim Goodman
that County Executive Doyle's proposed cuts in human services were necessary.
"We are sharing the pain," Schauseil said. "We are working with less resources
at DSS, and we are asking our nonprofit agencies to do the same." That sounds
more like knee-jerk support for Boss Doyle than advocacy for the poor.

We asked a couple of Schauseil's
critics to comment on the change at the top of DSS. "We're delighted," said
Sister Grace Miller of the House of Mercy, a group that's frequently
demonstrated against welfare reform at the county legislature. "We made it tough
for him," Miller admitted. "He was a hard one to reach."

"He's a nice fellow, an efficient
administrator," said Bob Ingram, who works with EMPOWER Welfare Rights, a group
of and for recipients of public assistance. But Ingram, who charges that DSS throws
unnecessary obstacles in applicants' paths, said the personnel change
ultimately will make little difference --- as long as Doyle is in charge.

Rape
crisis in crisis

Among
the array of social service cuts County Executive Jack Doyle has decreed in his
attempt to balance the county budget are funds provided to staff Monroe
County's only 24-hour, free, and confidential hotline for victims of sexual
violence. The hotline, run by Planned
Parenthood of the Greater Rochester/Syracuse Region, is slated to lose
$10,000 in county funds this year. In 2003, the Doyle administration has
proposed eliminating its contract for the service entirely, a cut of nearly
$40,000.

Potter's three staff counselors
train and provide support to the volunteers who staff the hotline. The hotline
receives between 900 and 1,000 calls from new clients every year. Staff and
their volunteers also manage ongoing cases, helping sexual assault victims deal
with the physical, psychological, and legal aspects of such crimes. Staffers
also lend their expertise to school counselors and other professionals working
on cases in which sexual abuse is involved. The county funding reduction would
represent a loss of roughly one-and-a-half staff positions.

"To have this [funding cut] in my
face now, to lose staff in Monroe County, that is very disturbing to me,"
Potter says. That's because these days, Monroe County is "desperate" for
volunteers, she says. "I've been doing this for 12 years, and I do not use that
word lightly at all."

According to Potter, of the 35 to 45
volunteers needed to provide the service, the regional office is trying to get
by with about 20. And the harrowing nature of rape crisis work exacerbates the
shortage. After all, Planned Parenthood isn't asking these volunteers to file
paperwork in the office. "We're asking people to get up at three in morning and
go to a hospital call for a victim," Potter says. "And they do."

The proposed funding cuts "might
seem like a small amount of money," Potter says, "but the ripple effect it
could cause our program could be devastating." Should the service be compelled
to cut its hours or impose a fee, it risks losing the handful of grants that
constitute its other funding sources, including a large chunk of funding from
the state Department of Health.

"We can't say to someone, 'We'll get
back to you,'" Potter says. "We're contracted with the state to be there."

Potter is hopeful a letter-writing
campaign and other lobbying efforts will convince county officials to restore
the funding. Based on her previous work with him, Potter says Doyle "is
extremely supportive of rape victims. That's why I think he needs to take a
second look here.

"He was a judge," she adds. "He sat
on the bench and watched a parade of people [affected by sexual violence] come
before him."

County administration spokesman
James Smith did not return a call seeking comment.

East
West closes

The
East West Shop in Victor, one of the
Rochester area's highest quality galleries, will close its doors this fall
after a final show in September. Merlin
Dailey, a leading expert in art of the Far East, opened the gallery 32
years ago. Although there will no longer be a walk-in space, the name and the
business will continue in a different form.

"We're opening a website. I think
that's where the market is," says Dailey, who says he will not slow down. "I
want to keep my hands and my heart in the art world of Rochester. I want to
continue to give talks at the Memorial Art Gallery and do other things." The
gallery will be going out in a blaze of glory. The final show will include
Surimono, Chinese spirit stones, Chinese Landscape paintings from the 17th
century, and Japanese fans from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Practical and personalized volunteering tailored to Rochester issues

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